Romantic link to Drew Peterson a shock

December 18, 2008

Friends and family of Christina Raines were still reeling from the shock today that she could be the fiance of Drew Peterson, the former Bolingbrook police sergeant who's still married to his missing wife, Stacy."She should think before she gets into something she can't get out of," said 54-year-old Joe Raines of Minnesota, who said he was Raines' uncle. "She needs to find somebody else. Nothing good is going to come out of this."

Raines, 23, was identified this week as the latest love interest of the 54-year-old Peterson.

Investigators have named Peterson the sole suspect in Stacy Peterson's October 2007 disappearance. She also was 23 when she was last seen.

If Raines -- who couldn't be reached Thursday -- is engaged to Peterson, it would be at least his sixth fiance. If they married, she would be the fifth Mrs. Drew Peterson.

Peterson declined to discuss his engagement, which was confirmed by his publicist. Sources named Raines as his betrothed. Raines denied the relationship to the Sun-Times.

Raines' former boyfriend of five years, Tony Yauk, said he saw a ring on her finger, and he knows Raines and Peterson have been friendly for years.

"I didn't think it was true," said Yauk, 26, the father of her two children, ages 4 and 5. "But I just got done talking to her face to face and I think it's true."

Authorities are investigating Stacy Peterson's disappearance as a "potential homicide." They're also reinvestigating the 2004 death of Peterson's third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in an empty bathtub.